Suffering (Remastered)
by TycadManson
Summary: This is a rewritten version of Suffering. I'm rewriting it mostly because I felt ashamed of the original version, I felt it was a tad too immature, sort of like a 5th grader wrote it. I understand that plenty of people like it and I will leave the original up, but I'm also going to rewrite the story and put it up here too. The premise remains the same as the original though.
1. Chapter 1

"I want to go home," Dash sobbed.

"Yeah, I can see wanting to do that," replied the party pony in a cold, uncaring manner. "Sometimes, I just wanna give up, just say 'I'm done with this mess' and go to bed. But you know what? You can't shrug off your responsibilities. You got to pull yourself up and meet the challenges head on. That's the only way you're gonna get ahead in life."

Dash hung her head and cried. Minutes passed, but they felt like hours to the cyan mare. She had lost a great deal of blood, the stubs where her wings used to be were bleeding profusely still, and the electricity had more than likely done some serious damage to her heart. Not to mention the spikes that were still cooking the enamel and flesh inside of her hooves. Dash looked up to see Pinkie approaching her, scalpel in hand, with an evil grin on her face.

"Well, this is it, looks like I'm done for." Dash thought solemnly. "I just wish I could have said good-bye to my friends, I wish I could have said goodbye to... Fluttershy."

In that moment, time stopped. Everything was still. Rainbow Dash lied there, life flashing before her eyes. She saw it all. The countless amounts of pranks she and Pinkie would play on other ponies. When she first met Twilight Sparkle. Standing up for Fluttershy when they were both in school. So many happy memories presented themselves before her. It might have held some nostalgic value had it not been for the mind snapping pain that pulsed through her body.

Rainbow Dash didn't know why she had singled out Fluttershy, out of all of her friends. She felt guilty that she was giving more of her final thoughts to one of her friends rather than all of them, but for some reason, she just couldn't take her mind off of Fluttershy. Why? Rainbow Dash didn't know, maybe it was all the trauma she had suffered in the last half hour. Maybe she was becoming irrational in her hour of desperation, Dash was clueless.

One thing that she knew for certain, however. Rainbow Dash wasn't ready to die. There was simply too much left undone. So much she still had to do, The Wonderbolts, her friends, her place as an Element of Harmony, she wasn't ready to give it up. All these thoughts led up to one thing. One soul-crushing fact. Her entire life's work was about to be rendered useless at the hooves of her dear friend: Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash felt the tears stinging her face again, as she realized that Pinkie had little to no sympathy for her, or for anypony, as she had deduced by looking around her "eccentrically" decorated room.

Rainbow Dash, even in her pained and nearly dead state, she was still in awe of just how far a pony could slip into insanity. The residents of PonyVille were always peaceful, warm, and welcoming. Why would anyone in the town want to do something as macabre as this? An Element of Harmony doing it, no less! Not even an entity like Discord was capable of driving somepony this far into madness.

As all of these thoughts were going through Rainbow Dash's head, her left hoof involuntarily twitched, Rainbow Dash wouldn't have even noticed this movement, but it than dawned on her that she could maneuver her hoof a little bit better than before. She glanced up to see that one of her bindings was loose. She struggled against her restraints. The ends were frayed and the bolts holding the edges down were loose. Dash could feel it.

"Of course!" Dash thought with new found hope. "With all the ponies Pinkie must have abducted, these old things had to have gotten worn out after a while! If I can wait until Pinkie is close enough, maybe I can get loose!" Rainbow Dash felt more of her strength returning at this realization, but she did her best to hide it. Apparently it worked, because Pinkie was still advancing towards her. Ever so slowly, as if she were savoring the final moments of Rainbow Dash. As much as she didn't want to, Rainbow Dash maintained eye contact with Pinkie, trying her best to keep her poker face up.

Rainbow Dash waited until Pinkie's scalpel was, but mere centimeters away from her stomach, than, with all the strength she had in her body, ripped her left hoof free and punched Pinkie right in her jaw! The scalpel flew from her hands and Dash instinctively caught it with her free hoof. She looked up to see that Pinkie had already regained her bearings and had picked up another scalpel.

In a blind rage, Pinkie charged the still restrained Rainbow Dash. Dash held up her free hoof, closed her eyes, and waited for, what she thought, was inevitable. But nothing came. She unshielded her eyes to see Pinkie staring wide eyed at her, than falling on her side, unmoving. Dash looked down to see the scalpel she had been holding only second prior was jammed right into Pinkie's heart. It took some time for it to sink in. But inevitably, it did. Rainbow Dash had just killed Pinkie Pie. It may have been accidental, but it still happened. Despite the hell that Pinkie had put Dash through, she still wept for her friend. She wanted so badly, to be angry, to be infuriated, but she just couldn't find it in herself to hate Pinkie Pie for what she had done. All she could do was weep and mutter to herself: "Why?"

Rainbow Dash, after regaining a partial portion of her sense, reached down to the scalpel and grabbed it. She cut the rest of her bonds loose and attempted to make her way out. All she could do was crawl. The drug that Pinkie had injected into her spine prevented her from using her hind legs. And even if she could, the heated nails that were driven into the soles of her hooves would more than likely dispel any notions of walking anyway. She slowly crawled up the stairs, pain cascading through every fiber of her being with feeling with every stride she made. Eventually, she reached the door leading to the shop, shakily, she opened the door and dragged herself into the room.

Aside from Rainbow Dash's gasps and moans of pain, no other sounds were being made in the vicinity, everything was silent, still, and neat. A sharp contrast compared to the scene just a few paces behind her. The shadows that were being cast from the windows gave the entire room an extremely eerie and foreboding feel. As if a predator was waiting to pounce upon a wounded animal. Strange, considering how bright and happy the store is during the day.

After what seemed like hours of tedious and pain-filled crawling, Rainbow Dash finally made her way out of the shop and into the street. It was in the middle of the night in Ponyville, so everyone was asleep at this time, so Rainbow Dash tried to scream to get somepony's attention, but it was no use. All the screaming she had done in the cellar while Pinkie was torturing her had strained her voice to the point where she could only offer a whisper of a scream.

As blurred as Rainbow Dash's mind was, she knew one thing for certain: She needed to get to the hospital. Now. It felt so far away though. Dragging herself in this state, it would take hours for her to reach the hospital. Rainbow Dash, knowing this, still tried. But it was no use, any help that she could possibly reach was too far away and she was almost out of time. For the first time in her life, Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her back and, after a few moments of pain from the stumps of her wings making contact with the dirt, surrendered herself to her fate. For a time, she just stared at the night sky.

Rainbow Dash's eyelids became heavy and it wasn't long before she shut them. Darkness soon engulfed her entire being. Not long now. Not long before her agony was all over. She chuckled, the trauma must have really had an impact because she thought she heard the extremely quiet, but worried and soon, fear-filled ramblings of a pony who's voice could only be described as extremely timid. Rainbow Dash felt her hallucination as well. She felt gentle, caring, hooves inspecting her wounds. This was followed shortly by, what felt like, water droplets falling down onto her face.

"There weren't any clouds in the sky when I looked up, how is it raining?" Rainbow Dash thought to herself.

The rain kept up, first a few drops at a time, than a few more, and more, and more, until the drops were cascading down on her face. Rainbow Dash would have thought of it as strange that it was raining only on her facr while the rest of her body stayed dry, but she was teetering on the brink of consciousness and any and all cognitive thought was quickly being sapped from her mind.

It almost made her want to cry again, but she just couldn't. She was just too exhausted. Rainbow Dash than felt a soothing warmth throughout her entire body, as if she had just been engulfed in a soothing hug by a dear friend.

And than, at that moment, everything in Rainbow Dash's world ceased to be. For a time, anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

Darkness.

Everything was so cold and dark. Rainbow Dash couldn't tell if she was even in her own body. She tried to look around, to move, but she couldn't. Almost as if her very soul was disembodied.

"Am I dead?" Rainbow Dash thought.

"Far from it." Came another voice. "If you were dead, you wouldn't be able to hear me, or anything, for that matter."

Rainbow Dash knew that voice, but her memory of all of her experiences was fuzzy due to her recent trauma. Someone with a gentle voice, one that could rarely work up a tone above a whisper.

"Who are you?" Rainbow asked.

"You know me. I know your memory isn't quite clear right now, but rest assured, you'll see me when you wake up."

"Wake up?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes." Said the voice. "You're at the Ponyville hospital right now, more specifically, you were admitted into the ER at about 11:30 last night, it is now 10:00 in the morning and you're sound asleep in stable condition. Not necessarily healthy, but stable."

And than, in that instant, everything that transpired over the last 24 hours came rushing back to her. The cupcakes, the table, the skin dress, and finally, the torture. The horrible torture. Rainbow Dash struggled to block the images from her mind, but they just kept presenting themselves as soon as she managed to block another one out. So much blood. So many tears. So much pain. It was enough to make the king of Tartarus sick.

Rainbow Dash tried to maintain what composure she could. Who would have thought that Pinkie Pie was so...so... twisted? But than again, they always say that those who seem the happiest are normally hiding something dark.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but wonder. Why hadn't she seen something like this sooner. Pinkie had always come off as a pony who had no problems what-so-ever, did she, or anypony else ever stop and think "Hey, maybe she's acting so happy and zany because she's hiding something!"

It was a thought. But than, another, more nagging question invaded Rainbow Dash's mind.

"Well, if I'm there, than how am I also here?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"You're really aren't much of a thinker, are you?" Said the voice with a disappointed tone.

"Well, you don't have to be mean about it..." mumbled Dash.

"You're currently unconscious and this is where the conscious part of you goes when you're unconscious. In this case, you're face to face with me, your subconscious. In laypony's terms, the uncensored you."

"Now I KNOW that's a lie!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Oh, do you now? Pray tell, how am I lying?" Said the voice, amused.

"Well, you don't sound anything like me and you sound a lot smarter than me!"

"Did it ever occur to you that you had a much higher capacity for learning and you just never bothered to use it?" Said the voice, now sounding more annoyed.

Rainbow Dash didn't know whether to feel angry, ashamed, or flattered.

"Not only that, but I'm your subconscious. I know more about you than you know about you. Therefore, my form, or in this case, voice, emulates one of your deepest desires. I could show you my visual form, but what fun would that be? I'd rather you find out for yourself. After all, you've been denying it for so long. Remember when I said 'you'll see me when you wake up'?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Said Rainbow Dash.

"Well, lets just say my form is somepony who is very near and dear to you, so near and dear that some might say you two have a lot of "chemistry" as it's said. In fact, she's the one that dragged your sorry flank all the way to the hospital"

"She?" Rainbow Dash questioned.

"Yes, my dear. She."

Rainbow Dash was about to question further, but the voice stopped her.

"Oh dear, would you look at that? It seems that you're almost due to wake up from your little nap. I hope you've enjoyed our time together as much as I have. After all, I am you." Said the voice with a chuckle.

As the blackness around her melted into light, Rainbow Dash could faintly hear the voice say: "Just think about what I said. Now wake up. Wake up."

"Wake up" "Please, wake up..."

Rainbow Dash could feel a soft pressure on her chest as she heard a soft voice gently begging her to wake up. She opened her eyes to see a yellow pegasus sobbing into her hospital gown.

"F-Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash said weakly.

Fluttershy looked up, and turned her head to Rainbow Dash, her eyes wide and tears streaming down her face. It took her a moment to register what was happening, but she quickly threw her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's neck and tightly embraced her.

"Oh thank Celestia, you're finally awake!" Fluttershy said through her tears.

"Yeah, I am, and I'm here." Said Rainbow Dash weakly.

Rainbow Dash gently wrapped her own forelegs around Fluttershy's torso. Despite all the pain she felt in her body, she felt strangely at peace, holding Fluttershy in her arms. Despite being found nearly dead in the street, in that moment, Rainbow Dash had never felt more alive. Tears of her own soon started falling down her face. She had known the platonic love of friendship for a long time, but this was different. It felt a lot more sincere and meaningful. She had never felt something so... warm.

"How could Pinkie do something like this?" murmured Fluttershy.

"Wait, you know?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yes. The police did an investigation after you were checked into the hospital, they found everything, including the hidden chamber, as well as the bodies of all those ponies and Pinkie's corpse, everyone knows the truth now."

"The truth..." Rainbow Dash muttered to herself.

For reasons unexplainable, Rainbow couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to all of this than just Pinkie Pie going insane. She felt that there was more too all of this, almost as if Pinkie was being exploited somehow. Despite Pinkie's psychotic behavior last night, Rainbow Dash could see a faint look of "Why am I doing this?" in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash soon closed her eyes. As much as it begged the question in her mind, she didn't want to think back to than. All it did was bring about more pain.

Rainbow Dash said nothing, she just cradled Fluttershy's head while she continued sobbing into her multicolored mane.

It was at this moment that Rainbow Dash realized. She didn't have her wings. However, completely unexpected, she didn't do anything drastic in light of this fact. Sure, she felt depressed, but, for some reason, Fluttershy's presence neutralized any sadness that would have, otherwise, come full force with the loss of something so precious to her.

After several hours, it came time for Fluttershy to return home. Rainbow Dash was soon left alone. It was than that the pain of losing her wings began to set in.

No more flying.

No more stunts.

No more of the feeling of freedom.

And worse of all, her dreams of becoming a Wonderbolt? Dead.

All of these thoughts hit Rainbow Dash like a freight train. Immediately, Rainbow Dash curled up into a fetal position and cried. Tears streaming down her face, she could never recall, at any point in her life, that she felt more powerless than she did than. All night, she weeped. For her. For Pinkie. For her hopes and dreams. For everything.


End file.
